Kudithipudi.Org

I successfull completed the 2008 Chicago Marathon in 6 hours and 57 seconds. My worst time so far (2004 was  04:46:01 and 2005 was 05:14:41), but boy am I so glad to finish it. It was hot (lower 80s) and humid, two things that I cannot stand. Despite my lack of consistant training, I thought I could finish the marathon in < 5 hours. By the time, I got to the 14th mile, I realized that I wasn’t superman and had to start walking . It was all downhill from there.. my walks got longer and my runs got shorter. By the time, I got to mile 22, I was ready to give up.. but then I remembered why I was running the marathon and picked myself up. Not to mention, my personal cheering squad (my sis, brother-in-law, Sri, Hafsa, Ravi, Deepthi, Achi, Madhavi, Sujana, Byna and Joy) were there to keep me going.

Thanks to everyone that supported my cause and provided moral support. You guys are the BEST!!!

Although I might have come 28472 out of 45000 people that ran the marathon, I was the ONLY guy (as far as I could tell) who ran with the Indian flag .

I have to thank the wonderful folks at Team Asha, for putting together a great program for a worthy cause.

Finally, thanks to the folks at CARA for running a great training program. I was confused througout the program on what my pace group was, I kept jumping from 12 to 11:30 to 11:00 to 12 to 11:30 .. but that was my issue .

This is how a grown man cries in pain after running 26.2 miles!!